True Tophies...

GO! FIGHT! WIN!... Those are the words shouted and heard from football stadiums around the nation. I can't believe its already that time again. Whistles will blow, pads will pop, and coaches, daddies, mommas will all scream. Why? Is it the love for a game, is the excitement of a last minute, game winning drive? No matter how the scoreboard reads at the end of a football game, two kinds of people walk away. We call those people winners and losers. One teams hopes and dreams, blood and tears are lost, and the others found and accomplished in the eyes of all who watch. It's sad, and you'll see exactly why here...

If you didn't know, I try to be an athlete. For so long I'd put all of my hope and my dreams on a field with white lines and numbers. I'd score a touchdown here or there and my day, my game, and what I called my "life" would be made...for a while. I loved to see my dad proud and hear my mom saying, "Yep, that's my boy". It was my everything. Then there is the other side of the coin. The loss. When I fell, I fell hard. I'd walk to off the field slinging my helmet like a brat, pout all the way home, and eventually make everyone around me miserable. Win or lose on the field, it's just a win, or just a loss. It sounds pitiful or cowardly to some that I say this and still call myself a competitor, but winning is not everything.

After a while my body began to break, the wins got old, and the losses, well they got even older. I began to search for something else. Something to give me victory, something to give me satisfaction. Something to give me success. I had already tried sex, alcohol, drugs, and anything else, and like football, they amounted to nothing but a broken heart. As I searched for personal glory and fix, I found more empty space because the trophies couldn't fill it.

Today when I "lose" a game my head points north and my fingers point high. When I win I don't speak of I or me.. but I speak of him. See I found something that would fill the space and my cup would overflow. The "student-athlete of the year" plaque and popularity couldn't fulfill me but he could. He is Christ. He is Success.

When I say success I don't mean getting that new car or raise you've been working for. I definitely don't speak of a prosperity gospel. Money will not bring you joy because I've never seen suitcases in or on top of a hearse. Wins on an athletic field add up to history and a high of any kind leaves you desiring more after the quick-fix is over and gone. I speak of a success that leaves you with a cross and eternal life. The definition of success is not a life full of accomplishments, but a life full of Christ.

See as soon as you gain the Championship or raise of this world you soon begin to desire more but Christ is the gift the keeps on giving. Christ comes in, does work, and satisfies. I no longer pin my life upon self-glory but the glory and grace of he who lives in me.

John 4:13
13 Jesus replied, "Anyone who drinks this water will soon become thirsty again.14 But those who drink the water I give will never be thirsty again. It becomes a fresh, bubbling spring within them, giving them eternal life."


We're told from the time we are born, "make the grade", or "make the play", then as we age we're told to "step up", "be the man", "make the most you can". If you don't do these things I promise you, that you will be seen as a failure to the world. You will be seen as a disgrace or simply insane. I tell you today, don't work for this life but let him give you life, and live that life for him and you will have joy and peace that you could never imagine.

I have scored the touchdowns and gotten the trophies but none of those compare to what I have in Christ, you can have it too. Jesus is enough.

"Looking People"

People love to look. Don't tell me that you don't love the sight of beautiful beaches or gorgeous mountainsides. The Lord has blessed us with indescribable scenery so we could be left in awe by his power. Don't try and entertain me with the idea that you've never caught yourself staring at an item in a store that you would just love to walk away with. Oh and please don't lie and say that you have never been taken away by the sight of an amazing sunset.

People look, all of the time. David looked over the roof top, Martin Luther King looked at a world full of hate, and entrepreneurs look at a world full of opportunity. Often I'll run into a "searcher" or what I simply like to call a "Looking Person". The looking people aren't looking for just a beautiful sunset or mountainside but something more. Something else. See these are the people who are looking for something that gives them an identity or that "one" missing part. Rather their on an expedition for hope or love or even help, they are searching.

Guess what. I'm not saying this is a bad thing. Surprised? See if people never look, they never find. If I'm not looking for the quarters in the cushions, I may come up a few quarters short. Proverbs says to search for wisdom and to search for understanding. It is an actual biblical principle to search. Searching is not the issue but examine yourself and see what your looking for.

Recently, I have been searching. I decided to take a look at my life and saw myself standing still. I began to look more and more and eventually found myself searching for the call that God has placed on my life and searching for what he is asking for me to do next. I found an answer...

What I am, what you are, and what we as Christians are being called to do is search, not for help not for love, not for grace, and not for a map of our lives to come but search for Christ himself. See if we look into Christ, if we chase after him and him alone, in him we find promise, we find love, we find help, we find him. Because if we seek we will find and if we knock the door will be opened.

You don't need things, you need Christ. Are you waisting your time and looking at anything else?

Pleasant Conflict....

So last night I was watching a movie that I hadn't seen in seems like forever and a day. The Lion King. Filled with giggles, chuckles and soul calming melodies, it also contains all sorts of conflict and life lessons. The one that I watched most closely was the obvious, most important conflict between Scar, the twisted uncle that never shows to the family reunions, and Simba, the praised son of the King who grows into a solid ruler himself. See Simba was taught to love good, life, and righteousness by his father, to the point where he could not deny his love for the prosperity of Good. Scar on the other side was known for being against everything solid in foundation and sought after self driven goals that eventually led to his death. The story eventually comes down to an epic battle and division. Good and Love prevails as Simba claims his place on the throne by doing away with scar in an actually righteous way, showing that good and evil can't "co-exist" and share the same kingdom or dwell within the same vessel. This Disney animation may seem silly and I do sound like a dork making it so serious but it brings out a principle that most adults can't comprehend.Forget the Bumper Stickers, Jesus says, we can't co-exist.

Luke 12:49-53
49 “I have come to set the world on fire, and I wish it were already burning! 50 I have a terrible baptism of suffering ahead of me, and I am under a heavy burden until it is accomplished. 51 Do you think I have come to bring peace to the earth? No, I have come to divide people against each other! 52 From now on families will be split apart, three in favor of me, and two against—or two in favor and three against.
53 ‘Father will be divided against son and son against father; mother against daughter and daughter against mother; and mother-in-law against daughter-in-law and daughter-in-law against mother-in-law.", -Jesus

Who are you? Which team are you on? No riding fences.

1 John says that we can't love Light and Darkness and if you say you do, you are calling God a liar. None of us would openly say that we love something else more than we love God but we have to remember that a Judge doesn't only look at the words of the defense but he looks at the evidence brought forth. Jesus has called us to salvation, and salvation calls us to live like we're saved. Jesus isn't merely a hobby but he is life itself and anything apart from him is death. When you accept Jesus, you also accept a cross and carry that cross not only to church on Sundays but you carry it day in and day out.



Preachers, writers, and other ministering Christians remember the Great Commission. Remember that the Great Commission calls us to build Disciples of Christ, not false hopes or illusions. I encourage you to present the Gospel, the full, true, Jesus filled Gospel. Preach the blood, preach the cross, preach the impact, and most of all preach Jesus.



Jesus is Love, don't forget it! Jesus came to save but we must not forget that there is a way to live and a way to die. Jesus is the way to life and everything else leads to death. God's Grace is awesome but so many people try to use it as a license to sin. Are you saved or do you just have a false hope? Jesus is love, Jesus is God, and God loves you. Accept Jesus, Accept Love, Accept the Cross, Accept Life.

P.S.
People who confess Christ with there mouth but deny him with their lives are the number one reason for atheism. What team are you on?

Just One Ring...

Humans have many, many habits and take part in many, many activities, rather good or bad. We seem to do these things to fill the spaces. That's why we hear so many professional athletes say, "All I need is a Championship, just one ring on my finger and my career will be complete". This is also why women say, "All I need is one more cute little thing from here and my shopping will be done for the day". This is why the "attempting to quit smoker" feels the urge while driving, eating, talking, or just simply empty handed. We have or seek these things that seem to make us "whole" but in reality just leave us searching for more. See because the professional athlete gets his ring and says, "Wow, two would be nice". The Woman finds that one cute little thing but shows up the next weekend and basically buys the entire store. What about the smoker? The smoker lights that one cigarette up at the stop light but discovers an hour later while stopped again in their car that the last one simply wasn't enough.

My point is nothing in this world lasts. We get caught up in these absurdities, trying to fill our cups full of anything we can find. We search and look under every rock and between every couch cushion but never find anything but more emptiness. See the athlete ages and can't play, the woman's pocketbook winds up empty and the all the smoker does is create a cloud of cancer. All of these things and everything this world has to offer will run out before the race is over and you be left short of the finish line asking yourself why nothing ever worked. Here is the answer...

Those things are not Jesus. See its very simple. Jesus is enough, and nothing else really matters. We see that Jesus never passes away and can't be defeated by his resurrection from and over death itself.

For so long I tried to fill my life with everything under the the sun. I looked for relationships based on sin and deception, I looked to athletics, I looked to recreational buzzes but all it got me was a broken heart and a false hope. I thought my popularity and social status had supplied me with all I needed but when I took a deep look into my heart all I saw was a deep, empty, and blackened whole. Then I found Jesus and let me tell you, when you let him take over, when you let him come within, and you give him complete lordship over your life, there is no room for anything else. He's so overwhelming that the cup, you were once trying to fill with the world but remained empty, is now overflowing.

I came to understand how and why Paul felt the need to sing praises to the Lord in Jail. Jesus is enough. Stop trying to find fulfillment from the world because all you will find is an eternity full of death and hell. Search for the Lord Jesus Christ, and there you will find everything, an eternity full of life and heaven.